Harry Potter 1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:  
**I do not own Harry Potter. If I did you can bet I wouldn't be stuck writing fanfiction about it.

**Prologue**

Albus Severus Potter wasn't a stupid person. Neither was is cousin, Rose Weasley, or their good friend Scorpius Malfoy. Together they formed what was known as 'The New Golden Trio' or some such rot. They thought it was ridiculous, but they had learned to live in the limelight. With who their parents were, it was hard not to. Back to the main point, they weren't stupid people. They were Ravenclaws for a reason after all. But their current idea_ was_ stupid. It was _beyond _stupid. It was so ridiculous, it should never have been spoken.

But they had to try, it was their only option. It was the whole world's only option. The world was ending, and only they could save it. The original Golden Trio was dead, it's only surviving member being Hermione Weasley. Hermione was a shell of her former self, but she was still a brilliant witch. She had come up with a way to send the Trio back thirty years to Hermione's own sixth year at Hogwarts. One might wonder why this would be necessary. The answer, of course, was to stop Voldemort before his heir, Sofia Riddle, could be born.

Through some complicated runic work, Hermione had stabilized the three of them so that even when they changed the timeline they would have all the same memories and genetic make up. This way, even if they prevented their own births, they wouldn't fade away. They were sent off with the entire Malfoy, Weasley and Potter fortunes, as everyone else was dead and couldn't claim it. According to Hermione there was a ten- day margin of error, and so they were aiming for July 31st 1996. They were hoping to stop all the nonsense before it started, as Sofia Riddle had been born three weeks after the final battle. This gave them a little over a year to stop the conception, and if not, kill the mother and child before they could become a threat, though they did not wish to do so.

So the three twenty-year-olds embarked on their incredibly stupid journey, and hoped for the best. Though it was rather flawed, because the margin of error wasn't in days, but rather years...

**Author's Note:** This is my first story, so I hope I did alright with it. Please leave a review if you feel like it!


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** In a perfect world, I still wouldn't own Harry Potter, because I couldn't make it nearly as awesome as J.K. Rowling did.

**Author's Note: **This has been minorly edited for continuity and spelling as of 8/7/2012 and page breaks were added 8/10/2012

**Chapter 1**

The Trio arrived with a silent pop in a cave just outside of Hogsmede, where a certain animagus used to hide out. Rose, ever the quick thinker, cast a tempus charm while Scorpius and Al sorted themselves out.

"Shit!" Rose exclaimed.

"What the- aw hell," Al groaned.

Scorpius was the last to look at the time and date provided by the charm, and all he did was pale considerably.

It was July 31st, 1986.

* * *

They had decided, for the most part, to keep their own names. Al was now Albert Porter, Rose was Rosanne Walters, and Scorpius was Malcolm Scorpion. They had messed around with their features so that they would be unrecognizable in contrast to their parents. Scorpius' hair was now a shaggy dirty blond, almost brown, and he had freckles. His features were softened, and he had less of an aristocratic face. His dark blue eyes, however, stayed the same. Al's green eyes were changed to brown, and his untameable black hair was cut short and put in spikes. His face shape was altered slightly, so that he would no longer look so similar to James and Harry Potter. Rose, who had Hermione's bushy hair, though admittedly in Weasley red, now had curly blonde hair that was not nearly as bushy and fell to her shoulders. She had hazel eyes instead of blue, and her freckles had disappeared. These changes weren't permanent, and they could all see through them and view the others as they really appeared, however that was only because they were in on the secret. Their real identities and features were hidden under a fidelius charm.

Still none of this changed the fact that they were ten years ahead of schedule. Even so, they went along with the first part of their plan, which was to approach a young man who was about eight years older than themselves in 1986 by the name of Terrence Hawthorn. Terrence was a half-blood, and a criminal. He specialized in forging identities. Even ten years ahead of schedule, he was a master at his craft, for a price of course. Back in 2026, the 58 year old had still been at it, and was a valuable asset to their side before Sofia's men had killed him about a month before the trio went back in time. Soon the three of them were registered as orphans who had grown up together and were home-schooled by an old witch from Japan who had left them a virtual fortune. Using these identities the trio bought a cottage near Cadair Idris in Gwynedd. It a muggle dwelling, and though it was called a cottage, it was rather large, with five bedrooms, all with bathrooms, in addition to one downstairs a large kitchen/dining room, a large living room and a study. It came fully furnished, and it had belonged to an old Japanese lady who had been a hermit. It was this woman who they claimed was their surrogate mother, and so when they bought it from the muggles, they memory charmed them into thinking it had belonged to the three of them all along.

After about a month getting everything set up Rose found Al sitting on the living room couch staring at the fire while Scorpius laid across the rest of the couch with his head in Al's lap. Scorpius had his eyes closed in contentment as Al stroked his hair. For a split second Rose was overcome with the old urge to lock them in a closet until they admitted they liked each other, but as always she refrained from doing so as she believed they needed to find such things out for themselves. So pushing those thoughts aside, Rose tackled their most pressing problem.

"What should we do now?" she posed the question, sitting on the coffee table in front of the couch.

Scorpius cracked an eye open. "What can we do? We're ten years early!"

"I have a idea, but it's absolutely crazy," Al admitted.

"Any idea would be an improvement at this point," Rose shrugged.

"I think we should kidnap my dad," Al told them hesitatingly. Scorpius raised an eyebrow at him while Rose looked at Al thoughtfully.

"That's not actually that crazy of an idea. Except I think instead of kidnapping him, we should adopt him from the Dursleys straight up. We'll need an excuse of course," Rose replied after she had thought about it for a little while.

"Well he's going to be in school again soon. I say we get his teacher in a convincing non-lethal accident, and have Rose take her place as a substitute, and then-" as Scorpius sat up and continued to explain his plan Rose and Al's grins got wider and wider as they realized it might actually work.

* * *

Rose knocked on the door to number four Privet Drive sharply. It was nine o'clock Sunday morning and Petunia opened the door to greet her with a smile on her face.

"Hello Mrs. Dursley, my name is Rosanne Walters, I'm Dudley and Harry's substitute teacher until Mrs. Winthrop recovers from her car accident. May I come in?" Rose asked politely.

"Of course Miss. Walters. May I offer you some tea?' Petunia simpered. Rose found her completely disgusting, but accepted the tea anyway.

"I was just coming over to speak to you about young Harry," Rose explained as they sat down in the living room with their tea. Rose could see a pair of wide eyes peaking at her from the doorway.

"He hasn't been causing any trouble has he?" Petunia frowned.

"No, actually, I'm quite concerned about him, he hardly ever speaks. I think he might have some sort of disability actually. I understand that with two young children for the you and your husband to look over you might not have noticed this. I think he should go to a specialized school for the disabled so that he can be properly trained to be an upstanding citizen," Rose explained smoothly.

"Miss. Walters, while I agree that there is something wrong with the boy, I don't think we can exactly afford to send him to a special school-" Petunia started.

"Well actually Mrs. Dursley, I wasn't going to suggest that you send him at all. I understand that he is somewhat of a burden on you and the rest of your family, and I thought I would take him off your hands so to speak. If you would allow me to, I could adopt Harry from you and take him to live with me at the school, since I have been offered a more permanent job there after I complete my job here in Little Whinging," Rose didn't think this would be going nearly as well if Al hadn't been layering compulsion charms under his invisibility cloak.

"Well now that puts things into a whole new perspective. If he will be getting the help he needs I will gladly give him to you," Petunia smiled falsely, though she thought she looked sincere. Rose felt that this was too easy. Even with the compulsion charms Petunia was far too eager to give away her dead sister's child. Still, Rose wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, and before the day was out they had the adoption papers signed and filed with the proper authorities. What Petunia didn't know was that the papers were also magically binding, and made them Harry's magical guardians as well since nothing had been decided yet on that front. All of Harry's stuff was packed as he was officially in the custody of his once and future niece.

He held her hand quietly as they walked together to the bus stop. She carried all his worldly possessions in a backpack on her shoulders, as well has the paperwork in her large purse. It was late now, and getting dark. They stepped behind a series of trees in the park and Rose crouched down to Harry's eye level. The six year old was rather short, so she was practically sitting down to do so.

"Harry, I need you to hold onto my hand very tight because were are going to travel in a new and different way and I don't want you to get lost, can you do that for me?" Rose asked him softly. He nodded slowly and held onto her hand tighter. With a pop they were transported to the cottage and Harry stumbled as he realized they were in a different place.

"How-" Harry quickly shut his mouth and looked away from Rose, not finishing his question. Questions were against the rules after all.

"How did we get here you mean? I apparated here using magic," Rose explained.

"But there's no such thing as magic!" Harry exclaimed as his eyes widened. Al took that opportunity to pull off his invisibility cloak.

"Oh but Harry there is," he smiled at the little boy who would grow up to be his father. Al found the whole situation not only extremely strange, but also somewhat hilarious.

It seemed that he was going to raise his father.

How quaint.


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** In a perfect world, I still wouldn't own Harry Potter, because I couldn't make it nearly as awesome as J.K. Rowling did.

**Authors Note: **I changed a couple of minor things in the last chapter that effect this chapter, nothing really major. This chapter is about twice as long as the last one, just to warn you. I haven't quite sorted out my chapter lengths yet. I'm mostly just writing until I feel it's a good place to stop.

Edit: 8/10/2012 I added page breaks

**Chapter 2**

The first night when they were having dinner Harry was shocked at how much food they put on his plate. He had a five ounce chicken breast, twenty green beans, and a cup of white rice. When they first set it down in front of him (not even expecting him to serve it himself!) he was dumbfounded.

"Is the food okay Harry? Do you want something else?" Scorpius asked kindly when he noticed Harry wasn't eating.

"NO! I mean, this is fine. Sorry, sorry I didn't mean to yell," Harry cringed, expecting to be hit with something.

The trio looked at each other worriedly. This would be harder than they thought.

"It's okay Harry, why don't you just eat your dinner. You haven't done anything wrong," Rose assured him.

Harry was more confused then he'd ever been in his life, but decided to just eat. He finished about half the food before stopping. Everyone else was finished, so he stopped too, as he had been taught. He was almost full anyway.

"Harry, if your done eating then we have dessert for all of us." Harry's eyes widened. They wanted him to have dessert with them?

"Harry, I'm going to put this in the fridge, you can have it for later." Rose took his dinner plate away and waved her wand over it. Instantly the food was preserved and packaged.

Harry was then happy to discover that dessert was Angel food cake with whipped cream, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. All in all it was the best meal Harry could remember having.

After dinner Harry got his few things from the front hall and went into the cupboard under the stairs. Just as he was about to open it Scorpius stopped him. "What are you doing?"

"I'm just going to my room," Harry shrugged.

"But that's not your room hun, your room is upstairs," Rose explained from behind before taking his hand and bringing him upstairs. He was lead into a large room, with a lush, full sized bed in the center, a wooden L-shaped desk with a green lamp and a swivel chair in one corner, that had three bookshelves next to it. On the opposite wall were more bookshelves and two doors. The bookshelves had perhaps twenty books on them that Rose knew Harry liked from being his teacher.

"This is all mine?" Harry asked, shocked again. It was even bigger than Dudley's main bedroom! "Shouldn't you get the nicer rooms?" Harry asked in wonder.

"All of us have rooms like this Harry. And the guest room is like this as well," Al informed him.

"How is this possible?" Harry was nonplussed.

"Magic," Scorpius shrugged in explanation. Harry didn't ask any more questions, even if he wanted to. That was a rule, not to ask questions. What he really wanted to know was what was beyond the doors in his room. So after the trio left him to his own devices, he set the old pillowcase full of his things down on the bed and opened the first door. He found a full bathroom that had everything shrunk down to a size he could use, being only three feet tall. On the sink were a tooth brush, mouthwash and floss for him to use. The Dursleys had trained him quite extensively in the use of these things to prevent dental bills for Harry. He left the bathroom and went into the other door, where he found a walk-in closet that was five times the size of his cupboard and filled with clothes. Normal clothes, fancy clothes, and even some weird clothes that he didn't know were called robes. He simply stood and stared as he realized that it was all his. Right then and there he vowed to be the best he could be so that he would never have to give this up.

* * *

In a certain headmasters office a little silver thingy that monitored the blood wards stopped itself, before starting up again normally. After all, Harry only needed to be staying with a blood relative. As Dumbledore was away at the Wizengamot, he was none the wiser.

* * *

In the morning Harry came downstairs to start breakfast, only to discover that Rose had already cooked it. He was flabbergasted.

"Good morning Harry! I made waffles and bacon. We also have orange juice and apple juice, though I will require you to drink some milk. And a nutrient potion that we have brewed for you." This was a bit much to take in, so Harry sat down quietly and ate his two waffles with berries on top and three slices of bacon. He also drank all his milk, and the potion which tasted minty. Just as he was finishing Al and Scorpius came in from the kitchen door, sweating buckets.

"Eww you guys stink. Go take a shower! Breakfast will still be waiting for you!" Rose shooed them out of the kitchen.

"Are you finished eating Harry? Do you want any more food? We have plenty."

"No miss. Walters I'm fine."

"Harry I told you last night to call me Rose now. I'm not your teacher any more," _I'm your niece. _But Rose wasn't going to say that. she didn't want him to think she was crazy after all.

"Okay Mi- Rose."

"Did you have a good sleep last night Harry?" Scorpius asked as he came back downstairs from his shower, hair still wet.

"Yes thank you Mr. Scorpion."

"Now Harry, I want you to call me Scor, Mr. Scorpion was my father. I think," Scorpius frowned

"Why do you say that?" Harry asked the question before he could stop himself. But these people didn't seem to mind the questions as much.

"We're orphans Harry. All our parents are dead," Al explained, also coming into the kitchen. He hated lying to Harry, though it was technically true. The parents they knew were dead, replaced by five and six year olds.

"Like me then?"

"Yes, but we have a second chance at family, together. And you can be a part of that family if you like," Rose explained.

"I think I'd like that."

* * *

It had been a month since Harry had left the Dursleys, and with a glamor charm on they were taking Harry to London to get some new books. Harry loved to read, and was quite good at it. He used it as an escape from the Dursleys. He wasn't disabled at all, but rather he had held himself back when with them. With the help of the trio he was learning all the things he would learn at school, only at a faster rate because he was not being held back by other students. As such, he had gone through all the materials they had and they needed more.

Harry couldn't be kept cooped up in the house all the time, so they were bringing him with. Their first stop was Gringotts. They wanted to register their adoption of Harry with the goblins, as well as transfer some of their muggle money to wizarding money. When they brought back their money, they knew it would be easier to transport it as muggle currency because the goblins would be able to sense duplicates of the gold, but muggles couldn't do the same. The good thing was that all of their money had all been minted, before 1981, so they could transfer it to banks in the muggle world.

Harry and Rose, who was Harry's official guardian, set up a private meeting with Ragnok, under the pretense of needing to go over the Potter assets.

"When I was told I would be meeting with the guardian of Harry Potter I was under the impression that it would be someone... older."

Rose schooled her features into impassivity. "I'm the same age his parents would be if they were alive, and I'm perfectly able to support both Harry and myself," she told him coolly. Technically she was only twenty, but she was twenty-six according to her records and that was her body's age due to certain factors.

"I find that hard to believe, considering you don't even have an account here at Gringotts," Ragnok snarled.

"I have plenty of money in muggle banks, and I make a living as a tutor. I recently signed a contract with the Lovegoods if feel like asking them," Rose drawled. It was even true, she had owled Xenophilius Lovegood asking to put an advertisement for tutoring in the Quibbler and he had asked if she would tutor Luna as well.

Harry himself was very confused, but he didn't like this goblin, because he was being mean to Rose. Still, he would be polite. "Sir, may I please see my account holdings, and a copy of my parent's will, if you have it."

"Certainly Mr. Potter."

Inwardly Rose rolled her eyes. If only they knew...

Upon discovering that he could take things other than money out of the Potter family vault Harry and Rose went down to the vault and examined the contents. In addition to the mountains of gold there were an assortment of wands which Harry went over to immiditely.

"Can I take one Rose?" Harry asked eagerly. She had talked about this with her mother before they were sent back, and Hermione had told them how to remove the trace with a spell. Since they had done so Harry was perfectly capable of doing magic. Given this, a wand should be fine for Harry.

"Yes, but remember, you can't use it until you get to Hogwarts." This lie was needed to fool the goblins, she would tell Harry the truth later.

Harry tried out several of the wands, but finally settled on a 11 ½ inch cherry wand with dragon heartstring. Rose's eyes practically popped out of her head. That would be a very lethal wand if used incorrectly.

"Say Rose, can I try out the other wands, just for fun?" With Rose's nod of approval he found another wand the worked for him, a 12 inch pear wand with a Phoenix feather core. That was good, because pear wands were well known to belong to non-dark wizards. Scorpius also had a pear wand. They grabbed a couple of wand holsters and just as they were about to leave, Harry spotted a strange blue egg with bronze spots. It was as big as his head, but light as a feather when he picked it up. Suddenly the egg started to glow and burned to the touch, but Harry couldn't let it go. There was a flash, and suddenly Harry was holding, not an egg, but a Phoenix. Rose could only stare in shock.

That definitely hadn't happened last time.

The Phoenix, named Rowena, as she told Harry, was no ordinary Phoenix. For one, she could talk to Harry in his head. For another, she was the reincarnated spirit of Rowena Ravenclaw. Thirdly, she was able to transform into her human form for up to three hours at a time every 24 hours. She told Harry all of this within a few seconds, warning him not to tell anyone but his guardians these facts. She then told him she would be waiting in his room at home, and flamed away. This left Harry quite bewildered, but he refused to comment to anyone. Rose wisely decided not to ask questions until they were safely back home.

Even so, they didn't go straight home, and instead met with Scorpius and Al before walking around the alley. They stopped in Flourish and Blotts to pick up some books for Harry because he wanted to know more about the magical world and subjects. They picked out books on Transfiguration, Charms, Runes, Arithmancy, Potions, Herbology and Astronomy. The trio was pleased that Harry wanted to know everything he could about the magical world. They also picked up some books on History, because Rose deemed it important. Harry insisted on using the money from his trust vault to pay for it, because he didn't want to impose on their hospitality. He was still afraid that they would send him back to the Dursleys.

They had lunch in the leaky cauldron before walking out into muggle London. They took Harry to see a play (Alice in Wonderland) which he liked immensely. They also picked up several muggle books to use for Harry and Luna's schooling. They decided to teach Luna and Harry together, though Luna would have to be caught up to Harry's level. They didn't think this would be too hard, as there were three of them, so they could work on different levels with them.

On the way out of the play they overheard a young girl gushing about how wonderful it was.

"I particularly loved how it was a play within a play," the girl was saying before she tripped and knocked into Al.

"Oh I'm so sorry sir!" the apologized.

"Not a problem Miss?"

"Granger, Hermione Granger." It couldn't be, but it was.

"I'm Albert Porter. These are my adopted siblings, Malcolm Scorpion and Rosanne Walters. This is Rose's adopted son Harry. We were just about to go get some dinner if you and your parents would like to join us," Al offered cheerfully.

"Hello Mr. Porter, we are Wendell and Monica Granger, Hermione's parents as you guessed. But why would you want to have dinner with us?" Wendell asked curiously as he pulled Al aside. Harry and Hermione were hitting it off right away, comparing what they thought about the play, going in even more depth when they discovered they had both read the book, even though it was above their reading level.

"We live really far away from here, quite isolated and Harry doesn't have very many friends. If you look how their getting along I wouldn't want to stop any impeding friendship between them. Even though we don't live near each other they could still be pen pals, or talk on the phone. I don't know if your daughter had a lot of friends, but I know Harry could use some," Al explained. He knew perfectly well that Hermione had no friends, so he knew it would work.

"Well I suppose one dinner can't hurt," Wendell agreed.

"So, Malcolm, what exactly is it the three of you do?" Monica asked over dessert.

"We're certified tutors and teachers. That's how we got Harry actually. He was one of Rose's students and we adopted him. Now we're giving him selective tutoring along with another a year younger than him. We are actually looking for more students so that we can expand."

"What subjects are you certified to teach?" Hermione asked eagerly.

"Well I'm certified for English, grammatical things and such, as well as both British and World History, British and World literature, and ancient languages," Rose informed them. She left out her charms and runes mastery. She had good reason to be so accomplished, they were allowed the use of time turners to complete their studies. That was the real reason she was six years older than she should be.

"I'm certified for all math through advanced Calculus, as well as Chemistry, Physics and Biology," Al smiled. He was also a Potion's master, and an Arithmancy master.

"I'm certified for Spanish, French, Mandarin, Japanese, Greek, and Latin. I'm also an exercise trainer and a nutritionist, I know a fair bit about medicine as well," Scorpius informed them. The languages were just because it was drilled into him as a proper pureblood to learn them, and with magic it was even easier. He also knew Gobbledegook and Mermish, as well as had a transfiguration mastery and was a healer.

"How old are you three again?"

"Twenty-six," Rose smiled.

"I wish I was that accomplished at twenty-six," Monica laughed.

"Would you be willing to tutor me?" Hermione asked. She wanted to learn all those languages.

"I don't know, we live in Wales, and there are certain things that we are restricted from telling you..." Al trailed off. What he needed was for Hermione to do some magic. Suddenly the glasses on the table started shaking.

"Why? Knowledge should be shared!" the seven-year-old demanded.

"Not all of it," all was fully goading her now. One of the glasses fell and smashed on the floor. None of the other patrons had noticed though, because Rose had discretely cast notice-me-not charms.

"Hermione, calm down, look what your doing!" Monica hissed.

"Hermione's doing this?" Rose feigned curiosity.

"Well now that changes everything. We'd be happy to take you on as a student. In fact, we insist, as a matter of safety," Al smiled. Hermione stilled and the glasses stopped shaking.

"What do you say we pay the bill and I'll explain everything back at our place?" Scorpius suggested.

"But you live in Wales?" Wendell asked, confused.

"You'll see, it's awesome!" Harry spoke, excited that his new friend was a witch too.

* * *

Harry was asleep up in his room. He had collapsed on his bed as soon as he got home. Rowena had eyed Al as he undressed Harry and put him into pajamas. That had freaked him out a bit, but it was just as well that Harry now had someone to watch over him while he slept.

After Al finished putting harry to bed the trio were all sitting in a circle on Scorpius' bed.

"The Grangers took that well," Rose stretched lazily as she yawned. Her tight black cami rose up and exposed a great deal of her stomach, but neither of the boys paid attention. She noticed that when Al wasn't looking Scorpius was admiring _Al's _bare torso and vice versa. This caused her internal giggles. They were _still _in denial. Boys were so silly.

"Indeed they did. Hermione will start with Luna and harry on Monday, so that gives us four days to get the other three. Thankfully Xeno decided not to put the advertisement in the quibbler. It's a good thing we told him we only wanted six. Has Selene talked to Molly yet?" Al asked Rose.

"Yeah, I got an owl from Molly yesterday, didn't I tell you? She said Ron and Ginny could start on Monday as well," Rose replied.

"What about Neville? How are we supposed to get him? It was lucky enough we got Hermione. Though can I say just how strange it is we ran into them there? I thought for sure we would have to go through with our plan to bring Harry to their dentistry and work on them that way," Scorpius pondered.

"It _is _rather strange. I wonder- WHOA!" Al wasn't the only one startled. Suddenly they were in a strange white space, though somehow they were still on the large king-sized bed, black silk sheets in all.

"Hello my children," they jumped off the bed. They saw adult versions of Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny.

"Mum? Dad?" Al was in shock. To him, his parents had died over a year ago.

"We don't have much time. We don't actually exist anymore you see, the reality you came from no longer exists. Still, we were given form by fate and time to aid you with some advice," Hermione explained.

"You've already started, but you need to train us. And not just that, but you need to free Sirius. We have a plan for you. When you go to retrieve the me and Ginny, Wormtail will be asleep on the couch. Rose, pretend to be deathly afraid of rats and hit him with a burst of 'accidental' magic. That should revert him to human form and then stun him." Ron continued to lay out the plan as they listened with interest.

Harry stepped in just as Ron finished "Two more things. One, that Phoenix is the reincarnation of Rowena Ravenclaw, she will help you, but you have to tell her all your secrets. Now we have one last thing to tell each of you individually."

Rose was pulled aside by her parents, and Al by Harry. That left Scorpius with Ginny.  
"Mrs. Potter I-"

"Stop it right there Scorpius. You know I've told you a million times to call me mum." she told him sternly.

"Sorry mum." Scorpius blushed.

"Now there's a good boy. I wanted to talk to you about Al. I know you're in love with him. Don't deny it it's true. You're in love with my son and _that _doesn't bother me in the slightest. What bothers me is that _you_ haven't done anything about it," Ginny put her hands on her hips.

"What can I do? He doesn't like me like that," Scorpius responded, miserable.

"Bullshit. He loves you as much as you love him. And if you two still won't admit it after Harry and I are confronting you both about it then I swear I will come back out of non-existence just to beat you two for it. Got me?" with that Ginny pulled the much taller Scorpius into a hug. "I love you. Now be safe, and teach my other self what I need to know. And don't forget what I told you!" Ginny instructed him. Al and Rose got similar words from their parental units.

Suddenly it all faded and they were all back in Scorpius' room.

"Well I'm knackered. Goodnight," Rose told them cheerfully before leaving to her own room.

"I should be going too," Al said hesitatingly, turning towards the door.

"Stay," Scorpius put a hand on Al's shoulder and turned him around. Al spun around and knocked into Scorpius, both of them falling to the floor. Al landed on top of him and Scorpius hit his head on the bedpost.

"Ow." Scorpius rubbed his head.

"Oh poor baby, want me to kiss it better?" Al teased.

"Yes."

"Okay then." but Al kissed his lips instead.

Scorpius felt better that way anyway.


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** In a perfect world, I still wouldn't own Harry Potter, because I couldn't make it nearly as awesome as J.K. Rowling did.

**Authors Note: **I added page breaks in the previous chapters, other than that there's no difference. I still haven't quite sorted out my chapter lengths yet, and I'm mostly just writing until I feel it's a good place to stop. On another note, I'm going on vacation and I won't be back until the 20th, so there probably won't be any updates until at least then.

**Chapter 3**

Rose and Al knocked on the door to the burrow, preparing themselves for the performance of a lifetime.

It swung open.

"Hello dear! You must be Rosanne and Albert! I'm Molly. Why don't you come in? Would you like a bite to eat? I've just made some chocolate fudge!"

It was all Rose could do not to let tears come to her eyes. _Her _Grandma Molly made her chocolate fudge all the time, since it was her favorite.

"Thank you Molly, I would love some. Are your children around?" Al spoke for both of them, as Rose was still trying to compose herself.

"Yes, they're in the living room just through there!" Molly told them cheerfully. They knew exactly where the living room was of course, but Molly didn't know that.

"AHHH! RAT!" Rose screamed. A jet of blue light sped out of her hand and hit Wormtail, instantly transforming him into a sniveling Peter Pettigrew. Quickly Al snapped out his wand and bound Pettigrew, stunning him twice for good measure. Rose, seemingly coming to her senses cast the anti-transformation spell so that he couldn't turn into a rat. It was then that they saw Ron and Ginny both with smashed mugs of hot chocolate at their feet.

"Erm, sorry about that. I really hate rats, and apparently for good reason." Rose waved her wand and vanished the spilled liquid before fixing the mugs. "You're Ron and Ginny aren't you? We're Rosanne and Albert, your new tutors. But you can call us Rose and Al. Don't mind the man that was a rat, Al's going to take him to the ministry while I get you some new hot chocolate, hows about that?"

"You rhymed," Ginny giggled.

It was then that Molly came in, having heard all the commotion.

"What's going- Peter Pettigrew?" Molly did a double-take.

"Yeah, I was just about to take him to the ministry. He was hiding out as a rat on your couch. You know who he is?" Al asked.

"Yes, that's Peter Pettigrew, but he's supposed to be dead! He's Scabbers? Well go on, take him to the ministry then. I don't like to think what he was doing hiding out as a rat in my house. You best believe I'll be pressing charges. I suppose Rosanne will just have to take Ron and Ginny by herself then. Are you okay to apparate with two passengers dear?"

"Oh no ma'am, we'll be taking a portkey once we pick up Luna. Are you two okay to walk a bit?" Rose asked Ron and Ginny.

"Yeah, we go over to Luna's all the time!" Ron, seeming more at ease since Al was leaving, and taking Peter with him.

* * *

Al arrived at the Atrium in the ministry with Peter in tow, and promptly knocked into one of his namesakes, Albus Dumbledore.

"Hello my boy are you quite alri- Peter Pettigrew? Wherever did you find him and why is he tied up?"

"I was at the Weasleys' house with my sister and she's deathly afraid of rats and she hit their pet rat with a burst of accidental magic. Then it turned into Peter Pettigrew. Molly Weasley wants to press charges, and I thought it was quite creepy anyway, so I thought I'd take him to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement," Al shrugged. "I tied him up because I didn't want him escaping. He looked quite suspicious. Also, if he's alive, doesn't that mean that the Sirius Black fellow who killed him is innocent of that? And if the guy who tried to kill him is in Azkaban, then why other hiding at all?"

Now all Al had to do was see if Dumbledore would take the bait.

For the record, he did.

* * *

"Where's Al?" Harry asked once the four of them got back to the house where Scorpius, Harry and Hermione were waiting for them.

"He got caught up with something," Rose responded.

"He's taking my brother's pet rat that turned into a man named Peter Pettigrew to the ministry," Ron piped up, and Ginny nodded in agreement.

"How can a rat turn into a man?" Hermione asked curiously.

"How about that'll be our first lesson for today? A brief overview of animagi and the basics of transfiguration hmm?" Scorpius suggested. He was working on getting his transfiguration mastery again, given that all he had to do was almost the exact same thing it wasn't too hard. Still, a review couldn't hurt.

* * *

"So Dumbledore really took the bait?" Rose asked after all the kids had left and Scorpius was helping Harry with a bath.

"Amelia Bones interrogated Pettigrew herself, as well as took my memories of the event. Incidentally she wants us to tutor Susan as well, and I told her we would."

"Al!"

"I had to! She's the head of the DMLE and that was right after she agreed to give Sirius a proper trial next week!"

"You're sure a push-over."

* * *

"I'm a little weird," Al lazily traced patterns onto Scorpius' chest.

"Mhmm," Scorpius agreed sleepily. It was late at night after all.

"And you're a little weird," Scorpius couldn't argue with that "And I'd like to think that our weirdnesses are compatible," Al continued, still running his hand over the other's chest.

"Where are you going with this?" Scorpius cracked an eye open, no longer as sleepy.

"Well so we've fallen in mutual weirdness now haven't we?" Al nuzzled Scorpius' neck as he spoke.

"Are you telling me you love me by paraphrasing a Dr. Seuss quote?" Scorpius asked, bemused.

"Well I'm not quite sure if it was him or Robert Fulghum that said it, but maybe," Al teased, tracing his fingers across Scorpius' jaw line.

"Well I don't approve. There's no _maybe _in my feelings for you," Scorpius took Al by surprise and flipped him over so that he was on top of him.

"And what might those feelings be?" Al raised an eyebrow, his wrists pinned above his head, Scorpius' groin pressed against his.

"I _want _you, true," Scorpius told him conversationally as he lowered his head towards Al's.

"I _need _you, definitely," Scorpius started to nibble on his ear and Al shivered.

"And yes I quite think I _love _you," Scorpius breathed hotly on Al's neck.

"And I don't share. You're _mine, _and that's not changing anytime soon," Scorpius claimed his lips aggressively, leaving Al dazed.

"I love you too. And I'm yours, utterly yours, no sharing, got it. All I want is you anyway, you didn't need to tell me that. It was nice hearing it all the same. Now you were kissing me a few moments ago and I can't imagine for the life of me why you stopped," Al managed to speak after a few good seconds of not being able to register anything of consequence.

"You know, neither can I," Scorpius grinned, before diving once more towards Al's willing mouth.

* * *

It turns out Susan was the way to Neville, because Amelia was good friends with Augusta Longbottom. So they now had seven in their little school. They let all the parents know that this was their limit, as they didn't want to lose the close atmosphere. No one knew that Harry was _the _Harry Potter, because they kept him under glamour and he had shyly asked them if he could take Rose's last name, and he magically changed it. His name was now Harry Walters-Potter, but they kept it as simply Walters when speaking to others. He also had hazel eyes and curly dirty blonde hair. Only Hermione knew that Harry was adopted, because he had taken to calling Rose 'mum' which was definitely very strange for her, but she didn't discourage it. The poor child had been looking for a mother all his life after all. She wasn't about to take that from him.

* * *

It was the day of Sirius' trial, and with the permission of the parents, all ten of them were going to it. They were treating it as an educational opportunity, Hermione was even taking notes. Since they were using veritaserum, it was fairly straight forward, and Amelia was fair with her questions. However there was a snag at the beginning when Minister Fudge tried to steamroll the whole thing by saying the actual questioning of Sirius wasn't needed, but he was overruled by both Dumbledore and Amelia.

"State your full name."

"Sirius Orion Black."

"State your date of birth."

"October sixth 1960."

"Are you a Death Eater?"

"No."

"Where you the secret keeper for Lily and James Potter?"

"No, that was Peter Pettigrew, we changed because we thought no one would expect it. That worked too well."

"What happened the night of your confrontation with Peter Pettigrew in 1981?"

"I made sure Harry was safe with Hagrid before I chased him down, I wanted to kill him for betraying Lily and James, but when I finally found him he shouted about how _I _had betrayed them and blew up a gas line, killing 12 muggles while simultaneously cutting off his finger and transforming into a rat."

"How is it that he was able to transform?"

"He's a rat animagus."

After that, they had no choice but to acquit him.

* * *

Sirius stumbled out of the courtroom in disbelief. He was free! And dizzy. He felt a tap on his shoulder and thought he saw the face of an angel before he promptly passed out.

* * *

"Do you thing we could speak with him before he leaves?" Hermione asked eagerly as they were shuffling out of the courtroom.

"Well I suppose..." Rose replied. She pushed through the crowd to tap Sirius on the shoulder, only to have him fall and pass out at her feet. She waved Scorpius over and he picked him up. After a quick whispered conversation Scorpius apparated away with Sirius and Rose went back over to the group.

"Mr. Black is feeling rather sick, Scor has just taken him to get some medical attention. Let's all go back to the cottage eh? And we can discuss everything that just happened, and perhaps Hermione will share with us what she wrote in her notes hmm?" Rose suggested. They all grabbed hold of the portkey and went back home. They went straight to the basement, which had been converted into a classroom of sorts.

"So what did we learn today?" Al asked them. Harry raised her hand. "Yes Harry?"

"The Ministry can't be trusted."

"Explain."

"They put an innocent man in Azkaban," Harry huffed.

"Very good observation Harry, though I wouldn't say that all of the ministry can't be trusted," Rose corrected her. "Hermione, what do your notes say?"

"They were reluctant to try him. We all saw how Minister Fudge was talking. He thought questioning Mr. Black was unnecessary."

"I agree Hermione- yes Ginny?" Rose gestured for Ginny to speak.

"What do 'reluctant' and 'unnecessary' mean?" Ginny asked.

"Reluctant means that he didn't want to, and unnecessary means that he didn't need to. Now can anyone else expand on what Hermione said?"

"Not everyone there didn't want Sirius acquitted. Auntie Amelia and Professor Dumbledore made sure he was treated fairly." Susan pointed out.

"See, so even though Minister Fudge can't be trusted to do what is right there are others who can be," Rose was very pleased with what she was seeing. These children were very smart, but then again, she knew they had all grown up to be powerful and intelligent adults as well.

* * *

Meanwhile Scorpius was upstairs in the guest room assessing the state of Sirius' health. He was severely malnourished, and would need a steady potions regimen, but physically he would be fine. Mentally was a whole other matter, and would have to be assessed separately. They already had the required potions on hand, having a hunch that they might be taking Sirius back with them after the trial.

"Where am I?" Sirius rasped as you woke up.

"Hello Mr. Black, my name is Malcolm Scorpion. You're in the guest room at my house," Scorpius informed him as he helped Sirius into a sitting position.

"Why am I here?"

"You fainted at my sister's feet almost as soon as you exited the courtroom. We decided to take you back with us since I'm a healer and we wanted to help you."

"I can pay-"

"Nonsense. We won't accept your money. The world has wronged you too much, and the least we can do is heal you and give you a place to stay. My sister Rose is a great chef and my boyfriend Al is a potions master, so he can brew more potions to get you healthy again."

"I can't accept such charity. At least let me pay rent. But really, why do this? Why do you care?"

"Because you deserve it. Especially after everything that's happened to you. If this ministry just wants to throw a hundred thousand galleons at you and not go any father than it's our duty to do so. Plus, you seem like an upstanding guy. You were willing to kill the man who betrayed your friends, but only after you made sure your godson was safe. We admire that. Now drink this, it's a nutrient potion. You'll have to drink one every day for the next three months, but it should help you get up to proper health, along with good food and exercise."

"Why do you already have nutrient potions?" Sirius asked curiously before he drank. "And why doesn't this taste like hippogriff shit?"

"We have nutrient potions because Rose's adopted son was abused at his old home. And it tastes good because Al modified the recipe so that it wouldn't completely suck. He made it for a six-year-old, and Harry wouldn't have drank it if it tasted like 'hippogriff shit' as you said."

"Well props to your boyfriend for making good potions. Though I have to ask, when you say Harry do you mean Harry Potter, my godson?" Sirius half-hoped it was and half-hoped it wasn't.

"Yes actually. Rose got a job teaching at a muggle primary school and she became Harry's teacher. She noticed his relatives weren't treating him properly and so we came up with a plan to adopt him from there. I put a compulsion on Petunia to do what was best for Harry and actually listen to Rose, and then we formally adopted him both the muggle way and the magical way. Those filthy excuses of humans treated him awfully. They beat him, though not heavily, and they locked him in the cupboard under the stairs with no meals for days on end. It took us weeks to get him to admit to his treatment and even longer for him to accept that we weren't going to do the same thing. Now I think he's finally accepted us as family, he even calls Rose 'mum' and me and Al 'uncle'. Not that he doesn't recognize that he had different parents, he knows she's not his biological mother," Scorpius explained.

"No, no I understand. I called James' parents mum and dad. Can I see him?" Sirius asked hopefully, trying to get out of bed.

"No, no don't try and get out of bed. Harry will be brought to you once his tutoring session is over at five. It's three now so we have about two hours to kill. Would you care for a game of cards?"

"I haven't played exploding snap in years, Azkaban doesn't often let it's inmates play games. I'd love to!"

* * *

As soon as the other six left harry dashed up to the guest room, but he stopped just outside the closed door.

"What are you waiting for?" Rose wondered as she came up next to him.

"What if he doesn't like me?" Harry asked in a small voice.

"Hun, why wouldn't he like you? You're the coolest kid I know!"

"But he knew my parents! What if I'm not as good as them?"

"I'm sure your parents were wonderful people Harry, and so are you. You don't need to be as good as them because you're special in your own unique way. I'm sure Sirius will love you," she reassured him, crouching down at his eye level.

"I love you mum!" Harry threw himself into her arms for a hug as she kissed him on the forehead.

"I love you too sweetie. Now why don't you go inside and say hello to your godfather?"

* * *

Sirius had transformed his ear to that of his dog form so that he could hear when Harry came up the stairs. As such he could hear everything that was said outside the door, even though they were speaking quietly. He was touched by what this Rose woman had said to Harry, and was glad that he had found a real family with her, Al and Scor. He only hoped he could begin to be a part of that family as well. He changed his ear back to normal and looked up as the door opened.

There was that Angel again, and this time she was with his godson.

* * *

Rose fell asleep that night with a contented smile on her face, because she was happy with how things had turned out. Though her dream was rather strange...

_Rose was in a forest, sitting on a log, waiting. What was she waiting for? Suddenly out of the trees came a woman. She was tall, with dark skin, swirling yellow eyes and long black hair in a million tiny braids, wearing a toga. Behind her came a man, also in a toga. He was wearing a toga as well, and could have been her twin. _

"_Hello Rose. I am Fate, and this is my twin sister Time. We have come to tell you some things. First, we have altered your DNA to reflect the appearance your glamour shows. This is so that if you ever have children they will not genetically be Weasleys or Grangers. We have done the same for Scorpius, though with Al, we changed him so that he is no longer a Potter or a Weasley, but still an Evans. This is so that the blood protection remains on young Harry. My sister had messed with a couple minds, and now Petunia believes that Lily had a twin brother that was kidnapped as a baby. This is Al now. In addition, everyone will now believe Al has always had red hair and green eyes, and he should pretend to be unaware of the fact that he is Lily's twin brother. You will no longer need to change your glamours because those are now your permanent appearances. Also we have taken the work of Terrance Hawthorn and expanded upon it. He no longer remembers what he did. Hogwarts records now show that you were sent letters and declined, and your fake foster mother Naomi Koizuma now left you all her worldly possessions, which were previously held in trust in a bank in Japan, going to waste. All in all, your existence in this time period is official now, and when you wake up the three of you will have memories of your lives here. Finally, once your mission is complete, you will lose all memories of us, and your futures. This is done to protect you, so please don't be too upset about it."_

Rose awoke with a start. She quickly threw on a robe and went to Scor's room, which was empty, so they went to Al's room, where Scor and Al were both sitting up on the bed staring at each other. She entered and closed the door behind her before sitting at the foot of the bed.

"Did you just-"

"Yeah."

"And-"

"Mhmm."

"True."

"Do you-"

"Yeah."

"I think so too."

"I'm not-"

"Mhmm."

"Exactly."

And while it made no sense to anyone else, they were in agreement.

It was for the best after all.


	5. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** In a perfect world, I still wouldn't own Harry Potter, because I couldn't make it nearly as awesome as J.K. Rowling did.

**Authors Note:** I'm sorry this has taken so long, but there are several directions this chapter could have gone that would shape the rest of the story, and I went through three rough drafts before I decided on this one, and I'm still not sure about it. Not to mention I've been at a family reunion, even after the other vacation I was on. Also, I've started to refer to Scorpius as 'Scor' instead of his full name, sorry about changing it four chapters into the story. Finally, still haven't sorted out my chapter lengths yet, and so writing until I feel it's a good place to stop (and it's not ridiculously short) is what I'm doing. Enjoy the story!

**Chapter 4**

Albus Dumbledore had a problem. Naturally he was very happy that Sirius was innocent, and had gone to Privet drive to talk to Harry personally, but he wasn't there.

This was his problem.

He reached Arabella Figg, and she said that he had been there in August when she left to go visit her grandson in America. Petunia simply said that one of his school teachers had come to her, explaining that the woman had some special school for the mentally disturbed that she worked at. Apparently her name was Rosanne Walters. Dumbledore could have looked in Petunia's mind, but he felt he was above such things as looking into people's minds without consent, so he only did a cursory look to make sure that she was telling the truth.

He had been trying to track this Rosanne through all the muggle channels, but he couldn't find an address for her other than where she stayed as a temp in Surrey, which was now inhabited by someone else. It was like she had simply appeared out of nowhere. _Of course! She must be a witch! Petunia said she was about 26 so... _Dumbledore rifled through the old records in his office for that year, and found what he was looking for. _Lets see, in 1971 three wizards and two witches decided not to attend Hogwarts and one of them was Rosanne Walters, from __Gwynedd, Wales. That looks like a muggle-turned-wizard cottage, let's see, on file it belongs to Malcolm Scorpion, Albert Porter and Rosanne Walters! Yes! And it looks like the other two also declined their Hogwarts letters. _

With that Albus set off. It had taken him two weeks to get this far, and meanwhile he still hadn't found Sirius. He was walking through the entrance hall when he found McGonagall.

"Well Albus, have you found him yet?" she asked testily.

"Yes actually. All it took for me was to realize that Rosanne Walters was a witch. I've found her place of residence. Now all I need to see is if I can find Harry there," Dumbledore smiled.

"Well seeing as it's Sunday and I have no classes to teach, I think I'll join you," McGonagall huffed. She wanted to make sure that Harry was well taken care of, James Potter was her godson after all. She had been against leaving Harry at the Dursleys and had checked up on him twice a year. That someone had slipped in during the time in-between offended her greatly.

Once they reached the castle gates and were outside of the wards they apparated directly to the front gates of the cottage, Dumbledore having given McGonagall the address. Dumbledore was astounded at the power of the wards surrounding the cottage.

"But- but these are my own blood wards! How did they get here? Petunia and Dudley are still living at Privet Drive!" Dumbledore sputtered, very confused. It only got worse, when after they cautiously entered the wards, which accepted them, and knocked on the door it was Sirius Black of all people who answered.

"Professors," Sirius nodded. "Do come in."

"Who is it Sirius?" a woman's voice floated down the stairs.

"It's Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall from Hogwarts!"

"I can't imagine what they would want with us. None of us except for you have gone to Hogwarts, and I didn't think anyone knew you were staying with us," the woman, who they assumed to be Rosanne, appeared at the top of the stairs before gradually descending.

"We were looking for Harry Potter. Do you know where he is?" McGonagall asked kindly. Rosanne froze.

"What do you want from him?" her eyes narrowed and her whole body was tense.

"Our intention is to make sure that he is happy and healthy, and we were going to take him away if he wasn't-" Dumbledore started only to be tossed across the room. Harry had appeared at the top of the stairs.

"I'm fine! I'm happy and I'm strong and I don't want to leave my mum and uncles to go with some random old people I've never met! So leave! I don't want you here! I'm staying with my mummy! GO AWAY!" Harry practically flew downstairs to Rosanne and clung to her, crying and mumbling 'no leave mummy' over and over.

Minerva was flabbergasted. Especially since she now had three wands pointed at her face. Two other men had appeared from the adjoining from, and they and Sirius were on the defensive.

"I'm sorry Professors, but I can't let you take Harry away from the only family he has ever known. Rose is as much his mother as Lily was, and Harry wouldn't leave her for the world. As a matter of fact, neither would I. So if your intention is to get Harry to leave this house, you'll have to do it by force," Sirius told them harshly.

"Sirius, you misunderstand, part of the reason we wanted to find him was to ask him if he wanted to live with _you _instead of the Dursleys," Minerva explained.

"The thing I'm wondering is how you have gotten the blood wards to work," Dumbledore pondered.

"What blood wards? All we have are the wards the goblins cast for us and the one's I cast myself," Rose replied, faux confusedly, talking while soothing a shaking Harry.

"Well regardless, you have blood wards on here. They traveled with Harry to this location. I just wonder why. Is it possible that any of you are related to Lily Evans? I can't imagine how though..." Dumbledore trailed off.

"We're all orphans. We never knew any of our parents besides our adopted mother, Naomi, and she's dead," the blond man spoke, glaring at Dumbledore as though he brought up a touchy subject.

"Well all it will take is a simple spell to figure out which one of you is related to him by blood. But really it doesn't matter much. The only reason he would have to leave your care is to go either to Sirius, who is here, or the Dursleys, who signed him over to you. The blood protection would have been a reason to go back to the Dursleys also, but since it's here it doesn't matter," Dumbledore told them cheerfully.

With careful eye contact between the Trio and Sirius they lowered their wands and allowed Dumbledore to cast the spell. First he cast it on Rose, and above here head floated the words: _Rosanne Elizabeth Walters, Age 26, parents Samuel Walters (muggle-born) and Jessica Prewitt (pureblood). _Above Scor, it read: _Malcolm Orpheus Scorpion, Age 27, parents Marissa Scorpion (half-blood) and Orion Black (pureblood). _And finally above Al, it read: _Alfred Henry Evans, Age 26 parents Henry Evans (muggle) and Samantha Evans (muggle)_.

"My name is Alfred? Not Albert? And I'm actually an Evans? Wel I guess the name Al still works."

"I'm a Black? Everyone's called me Scor for years!"

"I'm related to Molly?"

"How is this all possible?" Sirius wondered.

"I don't know Sirius, but I think you should call Molly Weasley over here, she thought that all the other Prewitts were dead," Minerva suggested.

"We should talk to her anyway, We've been meaning to tell everyone the truth about Harry," Al shrugged.

"How do you know the Weasleys?" Dumbledore asked.

"Oh well we tutor their two youngest, along with Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom, Susan Bones, and a young muggle-born we stumbled upon doing magic one night named Hermione Granger," Scor explained.

"You do know that if you tell anyone they will start treating Harry differently. He's famous. There isn't a child who doesn't know his name-" Minerva added.

"NO! I don't want that! I don't want to be Harry Potter if that's what'll happen! I just want my friends to stay the same! I don't want to be different! I just want to be Harry! Why can't I just be Harry?" they had thought he had calmed down, but the six-year-old clearly still didn't have it all together, as the whole house was shaking.

"Harry love calm down! You don't have to be Harry Potter if you don't want to! You already took my name, just don't tell people the Potter part. We hid your scar, and changed your hair. You look like me now, no one has to know that your Harry Potter. We don't have to tell anybody! We'll just tell them that we did some heritage tests and I'm a Prewitt, that's all we have to say! That and Scor's a Black. No one has to know that Al's an Evans and you're a Potter. It can all be a secret, and we won't tell anyone until you get to Hogwarts. How about that?" Rose rushed to console Harry, and soon afterwards the house stopped shaking, which was a relief to all.

"Yes Harry, we'll all keep your secret. And we won't take you away from your new family. Right Albus?" Al did his best not to react to Minerva's words in a way that wouldn't be appropriate, as his name wasn't Albus anymore.

"Yes, Minerva is correct. Your safety and happiness is our main concern Harry, and always will be," Dumbledore nodded in agreement.

Harry was still crying, and taking deep breaths, but he was getting much better in terms of calming himself down.

"Harry, why don't we go back upstairs and try reading Babbity Rabbity again? You were almost able to read it by yourself last time, remember?" Rose suggested, as she took Harry upstairs.

"Why don't we go into the sitting room?" Scor smoothly lead the professors into the small, but cozy area and they all settled in, with McGonagall and Dumbledore on two different well-worn armchairs, and the three men on the equally well-worn couch. As McGonagall looked around, she got the impression that it was a very lived in house, with pictures of the three mostly unknown people in various places around Wales, hiking in the mountains, swimming in lakes, the three of them with an old Asian woman in many of them. There were trophies on the walls from muggle chess tournaments, and medals from swimming competitions that Rose had been in. All of their many degrees were proudly displayed on the walls, teaching certificates, masteries, both magical and muggle. There were also many pictures of Harry, and the children that had been named earlier. The fireplace had ashes and there was even a muggle TV.

"How is it possible that you have muggle electronics?" McGonagall asked curiously.

"Ah now that is the secret to Rose's Charms and Runes masteries. It's some complicated magical runic charm, I don't know. But Arthur Weasley gave us a permit for it, and so now we have a TV! It's pretty neat," Sirius informed her cheerfully.

"Well as interesting as that is, and it really is interesting, I was wondering if you could explain everything that led to you having Harry, because I'm sure that it's a most interesting story," Dumbledore _was _rather interested in the muggle technology, but he was more concerned with what happened to make Harry leave the Dursleys.

"Well the three of us are teachers, and while right now we are tutors, we had also applied to be substitute teachers until we had children to tutor. So Rose was Harry's teacher for a term, and she realized that he was purposefully doing worse in class, so that he wouldn't outshine his cousin Dudley," Al started the explanation, then gestured for Scor to continue.

"He was doing this, we discovered after careful prodding, because his Uncle Vernon would make his Aunt deny Harry meals for 'cheating' and though Petunia would sometimes sneak him food anyway, it wasn't much. Rose also did a medical scan of him once, and found that he had a broken arm that had gone untreated, and healed somewhat incorrectly. He also was severely malnourished, and they hit him for the smallest of infractions. It's one thing to hit someone for reaching for a light socket and almost electrocuting themselves, but a whole other to hit someone for asking a question you don't want to answer, which is what his uncle frequently did. He also had the cupboard underneath the stairs as his bedroom," here Scor paused and it was Al's turn again.

"So once Rose discovered all the awful things that were happening to Harry, she enlisted us to help her adopt him. So we convinced Petunia that Harry was mentally ill and needed to go to a special school, and that Rose would adopt Harry so that the Dursleys didn't need to provide for him. The fact that he was _the _Harry Potter and completely ignorant of his fame or anything magical at simply sealed the deal. Then we happened to find some children around Harry's age, who all needed tutors, and we agreed, since Harry needed friends, which he has found. None of them know his true identity, and only Hermione, the muggleborn, even knows that he's adopted," Al had barely stopped for a moment before Scor seamlessly picked up where he left off.

"Then when Rose and Al were going to go pick up the Weasleys, Rose saw Pettigrew as a rat and freaked out, hitting it with some magic that caused him to return to his human form. Al stunned him and brought him to the ministry, freeing our man Sirius here," Scor gestured to Sirius, who began speaking for the first time.

"They went to my trial, and afterwards I had barely walked out of the courtroom when I fainted at Rose's feet and woke up with Scor tending to me, since he is a healer, and I have been staying here, gathering my strength in the two weeks since. I'm still not fully back to normal, but I can get out of bed, and was able to give a short lesson to the kids, just as a question and answer type thing. I think that young Luna is going to make a great reporter, fitting, considering who her father is, even if he is a little out there," Sirius laughed again, and McGonagall was heartened to see that Azkaban hadn't truly destroyed the man who had once been one of her prized students, not that she would ever tell him that. But perhaps maybe she should.

"Thank you for telling us all of this, especially when we didn't really have much right to ask. We shall be going now, to give you back your Sunday," McGonagall nodded to each of them before she and a quietly reflecting Albus left.

Once they had safely gotten back to Dumbledore's office, they sat down to discuss. Surprisingly, they had very little to speak about, except for the fact that it seemed like a good place for Harry.

McGonagall was ashamed that she didn't see all the warning signs when she had checked in on Harry, but it had seemed like everything was fine. Had she known, even that his bedroom was a cupboard, she would have had him out of there in a instant. She knew after watching them for a day that the Dursleys were awful people, but to keep a child in the cupboard... that was beyond awful.

Like wise, Dumbledore was deeply regretting his decision to place harry with the Dursleys, and was very glad that he had found a good home, with a family that loved him.

They were startled when a raven flew into the room and dropped a letter onto Dumbledore's desk. Dumbledore cast several spells over it and, being satisfied that it was not malignant, he opened it. Only to pale at it's contents.

_Dear Professor Dumbledore,_

_It has come to our attention that the man who calls himself Lord Voldemort, also known as Tom Riddle, is not dead and has made himself a set of Horcruxes. You know what they are, as you have long suspected it. Well he made them. Seven of them, to be exact. And one of them is Harry Potter himself. Yes, the night Voldemort set out to kill harry, he made him into a horcrux. Now don't worry, a purifying ritual will get rid of it, which you can easily set out to do. The easiest horcrux for you to get right now is the lost diadem of Ravenclaw, which happens to be in your castle. It's in the room of requirement which, if you aren't aware where that is, you can ask one of the house elves. Ask for the room where everything is hidden. The next horcrux is hidden in the Gaunt shack, on the edge of Little Hangleton, where Tom's mother grew up. This ring, is also the resurrection stone. Yes, you know what that means. But it is not meant for you. I know you have the strength to remember that. DO NOT PUT IT ON! It has a curse on it that needs to be removed before you can do anything. IT WILL KILL YOU! Slowly and painfully, that is, if you're lucky. The next horcrux should be hidden in a cave, but conveniently enough, it is actually in number twelve, Grimmauld Place, the home of Sirius' parents. If you want to know how, ask Sirius to order the elf to tell you. It's Slytherin's locket by the way. The next horcrux is harder. It's Tom's diary, and it's hidden under the drawing room floor, which, incidentally, has several other objects that would prove of interest. And finally, the one which is most difficult, is Hufflepuff's cup in Bellatrix Lestrange's vault. However, if Sirius were to dissolve the marriage of Bellatrix, (as head of house Black) she would be a Black again, and he could get into her vault. As you may have noticed, to get three of these horcruxes, you need the help of one Sirius Black. So I would suggest getting friendly with him. _

_Due gemelle angele di misericordia_

"Albus, what-" she paused as he thrust the letter into her hands. She too paled at the contents as she read.

"Albus, this means-"

"I know. He's alive, somewhere, he's alive."

"We must contact Sirius at once then."

"No. He's with his family, and we have imposed on them enough for one day."

"As you say Albus."


	6. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** In a perfect world, I still wouldn't own Harry Potter, because I couldn't make it nearly as awesome as J.K. Rowling did.

**Authors Note:** For the love of Salazar I am a mess. I'm so sorry that this has taken so long. My computer is a mutinous tramp. And I had NaNoWriMo so I was working on my original works... Anyway, I'm super sorry, and unfortunately this will be short because I'm busy working on some other things like finals as well. :( Again, I'm really sorry, And I'll do my best to update next weekend as well, but I can't promise. But just know that I haven't given up on this story at all. :) Also, this is really short, which again, I apologize, but with my computer the way it is I don't have time to type any more before it dies, but I _do _have a plan for the rest of the story.

**Chapter 5**

"Do you think the letter will work?" Scor whispered to Al as they stayed up late wrapping presents in their room.

"Of course it will. This way Albus knows of the horcruxes, and we don't have to deal with them ourselves. He's more equipped anyway. He won't suspect us, not after our performance today. And especially because we signed it in Italian as two twins, female I might add. It's fine," Al reassured him.

"I suppose you're right. And it's better this way, since we're going to forget everything. I'm certainly not going to mind forgetting my parents. But what about you? We haven't really talked about it," Scor brought up the subject with some hesitation.

"Honestly? I think it's better this way. For one thing, I won't be sorry to for get about that bitch Sofia. And remembering what I've lost is just so hard. Besides, the lack of an iPod is killing me," Al joked, feeling that he needed to lighten the mood.

"You're right, I'm glad we feel the same way about it. Are you excited for Christmas?" Scor changed the subject, to the relief of Al.

"Of course, though I'm a bit concerned about Harry being overwhelmed. But I think he's getting better adjusting to the realization that people care for him. I think he'll do well."

* * *

"What is this about Albus?" Sirius asked, he was standing in Dumbledore's office impatiently. He had been asked to come in a week after the events at the house. Sirius didn't like the time taken away from Harry, as they were supposed to decorate the tree that day, and he didn't want to keep him waiting.

"Have you ever heard of something called a horcrux?" Minerva asked him gently.

"What about a horcrux?" Sirius asked sharply.

"We have received information that Voldemort has created some, and that it is quite likely that he is still alive. We received the information from a strange source however, and when we checked one of the facts, well, we discovered one-"

"Why are you using the plural?" All color had drained out of Sirius' face.

"He has created several of them, and as unfortunate of a subject it is, to get to at least three of them we need your help, if this information is correct," Dumbledore told him bluntly. He would usually try and sugar coat things as much as possible, but he could tell Sirius needed the shock.

"How can I help?" Sirius asked with a glint in his eye.

"One of them is in your old home, one of them is in your cousin Bellatrix's vault, and the third... I'd rather wait to tell you until after the holiday Sirius. It's for the best," Albus hesitated.

"You can't just not tell me if it's something I need to know!" Sirius replied hotly.

"Trust me my boy, you don't want to know. Just wait please. I will tell you on January third, I promise," Dumbledore's words sounded hollow, but Sirius let it go, noticing the grave look on Minerva's face.

"I suppose you want me to take up the mantle of Lord Black, annul Bella's marriage and take the horcrux from her vault?" Sirius rubbed his forehead, feeling as through he had aged a whole year.

"I know it's a lot to ask-"

"No, I'll do it. That bastard took Lily, James, and countless others. I won't have him rising again," Sirius snapped. "I'll adjust the wards for Grimmauld immediately so that you have access. I'll order Kreacher to obey you and everything. I'll leave the horcrux detecting to you. I suppose you have a way to destroy them?"

"I have researched purifying rituals, and was able to use it on the one that we found. I'm sure I can replicate it with the other objects," Dumbledore assured him.

"Good, now if you'll excuse me, I have a tree to decorate, and I need to get Grimmauld settled for you first," Sirius told them stiffly.


	7. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** In a perfect world, I still wouldn't own Harry Potter, because I couldn't make it nearly as awesome as J.K. Rowling did.

**Authors Note:** Hey, really sorry for the wait. My computer cord broke, I'm borrowing another one right now, but I don't know how long I'll have it for. Again, I'm really sorry. :( This chapter is longer than the last... In fact lots of things are longer than my last chapter, sorry about that. Also, the rating was changed to M, because I realized that it's better to be safe then sorry, and I was a little annoyed that I had forgotten to make it M in the first place. The second scene is a little inappropriate, but you can skip it with no harm done. I'm sorry about that. I seem to be apologizing a lot in the author's note, and as for one last apologize (because what the heck, why not) I apologize for spending so much time apologizing. :) Oh, and Merry belated Christmas! Onto the story! (PS, just fixing this because I forgot the page breaks, and was wrong, it's the second scene that's inappropriate, I fixed it! Sorry!)

**Chapter 6**

Harry stood hesitantly at the foot of Rose's bed. He was excited for Christmas, but he didn't want to bother her out of her sleep. He fidgeted nervously as he waited for her to wake up, and was so startled when she finally stretched and opened her eyes that he jumped back about a foot, hit is head on her dresser, and knocked over her crystal ballerina statue, which proceeded to smash into a million pieces. Upon hearing this commotion Rose scrambled out of bed.

"What the-" Her wand was immediately out, but as soon as she saw what had actually happened she lowered it. "Harry darling, are you alright?" she picked him up out from around the smashed crystal and placed him on the bed.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to! I-I- don't need any presents! You can return them! I'll go clean it up-" Harry was frantic.

"Hush love. I don't care about the ballerina, look _reparo!_ There, see? Everything is cleaned up already! I know it was an accident, I just wanted to make sure that you're okay," Rose assured him, kneeling on the floor next to the bed.

"You- you did?" Harry stuttered, still eying the wand in Rose's hand.

"Of course I did sweetie. I care about you much more than a crystal ballerina that I can fix in five seconds anyway. And even if I couldn't fix it I would be fine as long as you're safe," despite the fact that Harry was now calmed at Rose's words, he was still trembling and silent tears were cascading down his cheeks. "What's wrong hun?" she asked.

"I thought- I thought you weren't going to want me anymore. I thought you were going to make me leave. I thought that you didn't want to be my mummy anymore. You had your wand out as soon as you got up and-" Rose's eyes widened as she understood what happened. She hastily put her wand on the bedside table before coming up onto the bed herself and pulling Harry into a tight hug, though she made sure it wasn't to constricting as he could breathe. She leaned back into her pillows, which were propped up again the headboard, and stroked Harry's head.

"Harry, I love you more than anyone in the whole world. Nothing is going to change that, and I will be your mother for the rest of your life and then some. You understand that don't you? I'm never going to leave you, and I won't let anything bad happen to you on my watch. You're not getting rid of me that easily son," she murmured into his ear. Harry continued to cry, but was calming down in reaction to her soothing words and touch.

"I love you mummy," Harry told her, clinging to her nightdress as a drowning man clings to a lifeboat.

"I love you too sweetheart. Always and completely. Nothing will ever change that you hear? Now I think we should go downstairs. You need to open your presents don't you?"

Harry started to agree, but then he paused. "Could you just snuggle me for a it longer mummy, I don't really want presents right now anyway. Could we just wait?" he asked quietly.

"Of course love. Let me just send a message to the others," she cast her Patronus, a grim, and informed it of her plans before sending it off to Sirius.

"Thank you mummy," he whispered, before falling into a light sleep.

* * *

Sirius stretched as he woke up. His brain was fuzzy for a minute before he remembered. It was Christmas! Of course, then he darkly remembered the news that Dumbledore had given him not to long ago. He was about to leave the room to see if the rest of the household was awake yet, but suddenly Rose's Patronus appeared. He had never seen it before, so was surprised when he saw the grim, which looked exactly like him in his animagus form.

"Sirius, Harry and I are going to stay in bed for at least another hour. Please inform Al and Scor please," Sirius mulled over the message. Obviously something had upset Harry, but as he wasn't privy to what it was, he decided not to pry. He instead went to Al and Scor's room, as they had finally agreed to share one for good, converting Al's old room into a guest room. Sirius knocked on the door, and heard mild cursing as the door opened, revealing Al in hastily put on boxers.

He had a rather obvious problem.

Scor was lying lazily on the bed, with only a thin sheet to cover his lower half. He openly leered at Al, which was causing the other man to blush. Sirius promptly informed them of what had happened and walked away quickly.

Back in the room, Al had closed the door and was giving Scor a reproachful look. "You didn't need to scare him like that."

"I just wanted him to leave us... alone," Scor practically purred, getting off the bed and letting the sheet fall away. Al swallowed at the sight of his lover.

"But if Harry is upset-" Al gulped as Scor crossed the room to him and pinned him against the door.

"Harry has Rose, he'll be fine. But right now the only person you need to be concerned about is me." Al could feel Scor's hot breath on his neck, and Scor's hands on his skin. Unable to resist any longer, Al switched their positions and kissed Scor until neither of them could think straight. They stumbled over to the bed and fell into it together, a tangled mess of limbs.

"Al-" Scor moaned.

"Yes love?" Al asked with sparkling eyes.

"If you don't fuck me right now-" he snarled, tired of being teased.

"As you wish."

* * *

When the family of five finally all made it downstairs they sat around the tree in the living room. Harry's eyes widened at the giant mass of presents. He was further shocked to realize that most of them were for him. But first, he wanted to give Rose her present, so he pushed all of the other presents aside, and got the one her wanted, wrapped clumsily in blue wrapping paper with white snowflakes. There was also a card, which Harry had made himself out of an old piece of cardboard. It had crayon drawings on the front of the Rose with Harry in front of a Christmas tree. On the inside, with his neat (for a six year old) handwriting was 'Happy Christmas Mummy' and a smiley face. He was very proud of it, as he had made it all by himself.

"Thank you sweetheart. I love it," she placed a kiss on his head.

"Open the present! I got it specially for you when Uncle Siri and I went to the muggle world!" he was bouncing enthusiastically. Rose's interest piqued, she opened the box to find a Villa Paloma palm bead bracelet in 18k gold with green aventurine. She gasped.

"It's beautiful!"

"You really like it? I picked it out myself! I thought, you're pretty, and that bracelet's pretty, and Uncle Siri thought you'd like it too. I also made you this, but Ginny helped me," Harry babbled on as he handed her another box, which had a necklace in it. There were seashells all threaded through twine.

"I love both of them Harry." His eyes lit up at the praise from the woman who was his most favorite person in the world. "Now why don't you open your presents?"

When it was all said and done Harry had more presents then he could ever possibly want. His favorite though, was a trunk from Scor that when propped up was in reality ten large bookcases. He also got a voucher from Al to buy him twenty new books, which didn't even have to be educational. He was also rather fond of Sirius' gift, which was a training broom. It only went ten feet in the air, and would only fly if the magical signature of one of the four adults was there. It also only went about fifteen miles an hour. But nevertheless, Harry loved it. And he understood that his family were just trying to protect him. Besides, when he wanted to go fast, one of his uncles could take him on one of their brooms. He was very happy with his mother's gift, which was a new CD and cassette player. She also got him the new Bon Jovi album, and a voucher for her to buy him ten new CDs and fifteen comic books at someplace called Newbury Comics.

"What's Newbury Comics Mummy?" Harry asked, tilting his head to the side.

"It's a store in America," she answered with a smile.

"Why do I have a voucher from a store in America?" he scrunched up his face confusedly.

"Because we're going to America this summer, as a trip for you and all of your friends. It's a Christmas present from all of us. Newbury Comics is a store in Boston, Massachusetts. Hermione's parents are coming as well," Rose explained to him. Harry's eyes widened even more, which they hadn't thought possible.

"Really mummy? We're gonna go? With all my friends? A whole new country?" at Rose's nod her threw himself in her lap again. "Thank you so much mummy! I'll make sure we're all on our best behavior, I swear it! Can I go mirror call some of my friends?" Harry asked excitedly.

"You do remember that they're all coming tomorrow right?" Scor asked.

"Of course I do Uncle Scor! But I haven't talked to Ginny all day!"

"Okay Harry, you can call them, but be careful when you call Hermione. She's with her muggle grandparents right now, they don't know about magic," Rose cautioned. With that Harry sped off.

"I bet they'll end up married before she's nineteen," Al snickered.

"Eighteen," Scor challenged.

"The day she turns seventeen more like," Rose laughed. "What do you think Sirius?" she asked with a smile, but he didn't return it. His eyes looked haunted.

"I need to tell you guys something. I promised myself that I would wait until after Christmas but-"

"Hold on Siri," Rose held a hand up before silencing the room so that Harry wouldn't be able to hear anything. "Continue."

"What do you all know about Horcruxes?"

**Authors Note 2:** For Rose's bracelet, there's a link on my profile. Oh, and like all authors, I really appreciate reviews!


	8. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:** In a perfect world, I still wouldn't own Harry Potter, because I couldn't make it nearly as awesome as J.K. Rowling did.

**Authors Note:** Okay, so this is out as soon as I could get it, I don't know, I was just in a writing mood. For the record, I don't know if they had a UK version of Monopoly in 1986, so I used the American version. I'm American. So... yeah.

**Chapter 7**

After an exhausting talk during which the Trio put on their best acting skills, Sirius was sufficiently convinced that they had no idea that Voldemort had horcruxes, but at the same time knew of their existence given that their foster mother had informed them of the magics that one should never, ever use.

Meanwhile, Harry was talking to Neville, Ginny and Luna on a conference call, Ron was still eating and the other's hadn't responded.

"Did they really say that we can all go?" Ginny asked excitedly.

"Yeah! We're all going! It's gonna be awesome!" Harry was practically jumping up and down.

"I've never been out of the country before," Neville admitted.

"I have." they were all startled as Hermione appeared in a corner of their screens as it resized itself.

"Really? Where?" Ginny asked.

"My parents have taken me to France. But where are you going Neville?"

"We're_ all_ going Hermione," Luna informed her dreamily.

"Oh. Well have fun then," Hermione looked dismayed.

"For very smart witch you can be very thick as well," Ginny frowned at her.

"Hey! I'll have you know-" Hermione was outraged.

"What Ginny means is that you're coming with us. Didn't your parents tell you? We're all going to America together!" Harry cut her off. Hermione abruptly shut her mouth and looked pensive for a moment.

"But what about our parents? I'm not sure if I want to leave them for so long," Hermione told the hesitatingly.

"You don't have to worry Hermione, your parents are coming with us," Neville comforted her.

"But what about the rest of you?" Hermione frowned.

"I'll have Ron with me," Ginny shrugged.

"I trust Harry's uncles much more than I do Gran," Neville sighed. "They're a lot nicer," he whispered.

"Mummy's said she wants to come too," Luna replied softly.

"What about Susan?" Hermione frowned.

"What about me?" Susan appeared in the mirror. They were all glad that it kept magically widening as they added more people.

"Are you going to be able to come to America with us without your aunt?" Ginny asked.

"I see you guys more often then her anyway," Susan shrugged. Suddenly it hit her.

"We're going to America?!"

* * *

After all of the adults had taken calming draughts (though for the Trio it was just for show, and it was really only water). Rose fetched Harry from upstairs and the trio and Sirius taught Harry how to play monopoly.

This was a big mistake.

Now that Harry had a little confidence, he was a true Slytherin with how he played. He would act very shy and sorry, but he owned practically the whole board (Boardwalk and Park Place with hotels included), and soon everyone else was bankrupt and he had net funds of $21,000. Of course, after throughly thrashing them he apologized and asked if he could help with breakfast. Rose decided that he could help set the table, and had him guard Sirius so that he wouldn't ruin anything. Sirius was mock-offended at the insinuation.

"Though to be fair Sirius, you almost burned the house down when you tried to make toast," Scor pointed out, as he put some bread in the toaster. Not many wizard homes had them, but the trio felt that things like a toaster really helped to do things like_ not_ burn the house down over some bread. As long as you kept them clean at least. But magical toasters like the one Rose had created didn't need to be cleaned. Never mind that it was actually future Hermione who created it the first time... but no one needed to know that little detail. The trio really were doing their best to hide their future knowledge so that Hermione could still invent all of her new inventions, but at the same time it was really hard.

* * *

They all sat down for a late breakfast, where Rose had a through spread of eggs, bacon, sausage, cinnamon rolls, French toast, pancakes, waffles, grapes, pre-sliced apples, oranges, grapefruit, yogurt, pudding, fried tomatoes, porridge, kippers, watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapples, honeydew, and on the side they had applesauce, maple syrup, orange marmalade, grape jelly, cherry preserves and many more. It was a feast, the likes of which Harry had never seen before. Rose made sure that he had lots of fruits, but also let him take French toast and some bacon. Sirius also delighted in his first Christmas breakfast since Azkaban.

After a quite delicious meal, they took a walk around the property, which was about seven acres total. They were chasing each other around and throwing snowballs as if they were all six, not just Harry.

Suddenly, Harry collapsed in a pile of snow where he had been happily running. Rose rushed over an picked him up carefully before walking quickly inside so as not to jostle him too much. Scor ran ahead so that he could gather all of his medical tools. Luckily they were near enough to the house that Harry was laid down on the couch within minutes.

Scor cast several spells and gathered many readings before he would speak, jotting things down as he went. He sat back for a moment to review his findings before casting several more spells. He swore violently before sitting down on the coffee table. Al rubbed his shoulders soothingly while Scor tried to calm down. Rose kneeled down next to Harry and stroked his hair, crying silently.

"Scor, what exactly happened?" Sirius asked.

"Voldemort," he replied flatly.

"What?" All of the color drained from Sirius' face.

"Wormtail escaped and went to Voldemort," Scor clarified. Rose started sobbing in earnest and Sirius looked like he had been punched in the gut.

"How do you know this?" Sirius gasped.

"Harry's scar-" Scor faltered.

"It's a horcrux," Al finished hollowly. Sirius looked decidedly green and Rose was still crying.

"We know Voldemort's got some sort of power now because his scar is active. We couldn't tell what it was until you told us about the horcruxes this morning. But now we know, and it's leeching energy from Harry to power Voldemort. I've temporarily blocked the link, but we need to do a purifying ritual, the sooner, the better," Scor shuddered.

"This must have been what Dumbledore wasn't telling me," Sirius mumbled.

"Dumbledore knew didn't he? That bastard knew that a fucking horcrux was in my baby's head and he didn't even say anything! He probably never even would've told us about them! He only told Sirius because he had too!" Rose growled.

"Rose, calm down-" Al started but was cut off.

"I most certainly will not calm down! Ughh! I can't believe this!" Rose knew that she had already known, but at the same time she was furious, because she also knew that what she said about Dumbledore was true. And her anger at him was not faked. She also knew intellectually that Harry was her uncle, she was forgetting that more and more every day as her motherly instincts took over.

"Mummy?" Harry croaked. Rose was back by his side in an instant.

"Are you okay sweetie? How's your head?" she stroked his hair.

"It hurts. I saw- I saw my other mum. I saw the evil man kill her with a green light. And he was laughing and I was scared. He said he would get me too, and he would kill you and my uncles! And now he's gone, but I'm still scared!" Harry was crying and Rose had long since gathered him in her arms.

"It's okay baby he's gone, and I'm never going to let him hurt you again. Shush, don't cry. _Baby mine, don't you cry. Baby mine, dry your eyes. Rest your head close to my heart, never to part, baby of mine_," Rose sang softly until she felt Harry fall into a natural sleep, and she brought him up to her room where they stayed until she fell asleep as well.

The men didn't want to intrude on the moment, so Al went upstairs, Sirius went to Hogwarts, and Scor cleaned up all of the wrapping paper and then the whole house for good measure in a manic sort of way before going upstairs as well.

Scor sat down on his bed and ran a hand through his hair. He then started to look around for Al when he was suddenly forced into a lying down position via tackling and another pair of lips crushing desperately against his own. A pair of hands found solace in his sandy hair and a pair of soulful eyes looked into his own as if lost. Scor gasped as a tongue ran across his bottom lip and their kissing grew ever more feverish. For a second Scor could have sworn that Al was crying, but in a second it was gone and shirts came off as they delved into mindlessness.

* * *

Sirius was furious as he walked through the gates of Hogwarts. Dumbledore had a lot to answer for. It was about noon, so all the students and staff were gathered in the great hall.

"Oh look who it is-" Snape started.

"I don't have time for you Death Eater scum. I need to talk to Albus," Sirius snarled.

"You dare-"

"Oh I'm sorry, did I not make it clear? Shut the fuck up Snivellus!" Snape started to raise his wand but Sirius slapped it out of his hand.

"Sirius Black! Why I never! Swearing in front of first years? I thought you new better!" Minerva scowled.

"I did until I found out what a certain headmaster left out at our meeting a couple weeks ago!" Sirius glared.

"Maybe it's best if we continue this in my office don't you think?" Dumbledore proceeded to shepard them into his office where Sirius well and truly blew his top.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me that Harry's scar was a fucking HORCRUX? I think that's something I should know. You best be glad that Rose is busy with Harry because she's far more upset by this then I am! Why didn't you warn us?" Sirius snapped.

"How did you find out?" Dumbledore asked quietly.

"Well considering that Voldemort himself made an appearance in Harry's head, showed Harry how Lily died, taunted him by saying he would kill all of us, it's a pretty big clue!" Sirius shouted.

"But he's just s spirit! He can't do anything!" Minerva was shocked.

"Well evidently he can because a certain _rat _has gotten loose!" Sirius spat. "And that idiotic rat isn't really so stupid after all because he's managed to give Voldemort some kind of form. Now what the hell are you going to do about it?"

"Well, I suppose that we keep hunting down Horcruxes until Voldemort can be defeated," Dumbledore was a little pale, but otherwise showed no outward reaction.

"And how, pray tell, do you propose to defeat Voldemort?" Sirius' arms were crossed, and he was obviously still completely pissed off.

"Well, there is a prophecy..."

**Authors Note 2:** The song is 'Baby Mine' by Alison Krauss, and I got the idea for the song from another fanfiction called 'Baby Mine' by marksmom, you should really check it out, it's on my favorites page. For the record, I like Snape, and I think Sirius can be a jackass, but I did what I had to do to make this chapter flow better. Like all authors, I really appreciate reviews! Please let me know your opinions on the prophecy and what Sirius' reaction is going to be, otherwise I'll have trouble deciding what to do with the options I already have laid out...


	9. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer:** In a perfect world, I still wouldn't own Harry Potter, because I couldn't make it nearly as awesome as J.K. Rowling did.

**Authors Note:** Hello there, here is the new update, I started writing another story, but never fear! I will still write this one as well... No one gave me opinions, so I'm wingin' it here. :) I meant to upload this last weekend, but I was too busy to update both stories, sorry, but I will be trying my best to upload every week, I also try to update my profile every time there is an event that could mess up my posting, so you're welcome to check that out. Enough of this author's note, onto the story! :)

**Chapter 7**

"A prophecy. That's your big plan? Place all of your hope on a six year old, not even helping to train him! Not even telling anyone that he should be trained? And meanwhile Voldemort could come back at any point, and you just- arghh! What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"Sirius Black! Language!" Minerva admonished half-heartedly.

"I'm speaking English! Did you know about this stupid prophecy?" Sirius spat.

"No I did not, and I don't agree with it either, but that's no excuse to loose one's composure," Minerva frowned.

"So who made this _prophecy_ anyway?" Sirius sneered. Albus mumbled something quickly. "Sorry I didn't hear that?" Sirius narrowed his eyes.

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Sybill Trelawney."

"Are you telling me, that _Sybill Trelawney_, the most ignorant _fraud _to _ever _teach at this school, is the reason that Lily and James are _dead_?" Minerva ground out.

"Yes, but Minerva, it was a true prophecy! Recorded in the department of mysteries and everything! And-" Dumbledore could no longer speak as he had been turned into a chipmunk.

"I didn't want to listen to his excuses any longer," Minerva sniffed at Sirius' incredulous look.

"Shouldn't we ask him what the prophecy actually says before he goes all nutty?" Sirius cracked a smile.

"Of course. He's a little bitty chipmunk, and he can't have big people food yet!" Minerva replied gleefully.

They taunted the baby chipmunk for a while until-

"What exactly is going on here?" Snape drawled.

"Severus Snape! You're ust the man I wanted to see!" Sirius exclaimed cheerfully.

"Really?" Minerva was bemused.

"Really?" Snape was confused.

"Yes really. I've been to see a healer, he thinks I'm crazy, so does his boyfriend, and you know what, they're probably right, but them an this other woman we've been living with-"

"Hold it right there Black. I have no desire to hear about your lascivious escapades," Snape interupted him.

"It's nothing like that! Honestly, I'm not that much of a manwhore!" Sirius yelped. "At least not anymore!" he protested at their disbelieving looks. "Anyway that's not the point!"

"You had a point?" Snape replied.

"I was_ trying _to apologize," Sirius rolled his eyes.

"What?" Snape blinked.

"Yes. Me, apologizing, because quite honestly I was a bullying bastard. I was a miserable little shit too caught up in my own problems who vented said problems onto other people. So I'm sorry, and I know that we can never be friends, but you were Lily's friend-"

"Stop. Don't bring her into this. She hated me at the time that she died-"

"No she didn't. She's part of the reason I'm even apologizing! A week before she died, Lily got completely smashed, so did James for that matter. It was my job to keep watch over Harry, as those two thought they deserved to get shitfaced and I was to watch over them and Harry. Well Harry was asleep like a good little baby, James was passed out, and I was sitting with Lily, charming her water to taste like rum. So we're sitting there, and Lily was always a quiet drunk, so she was slurring her words and I wasn't really paying attention, then all of a sudden she's coherant, almost sober yeah? And she says to me, 'Sev was the one that got away. My best friend in the world. And I wish more than anything that when this war is over he'll be alive so I can give him a hug. Just one last hug. Even if it's as the dementors are carting him away, I want that hug.' The next day, when she's properly awake a sober I pulled her aside, and talked to her about it. She was blushing like nobody's business, but admitted that every word was true. And then she added something to it, completely sober and all, she said 'If things had gone differently, he could have been Harry's godfather.' And I didn't remember this, any of it, until my healer friend helped me put my mind back together. And that, more than anything, is why I'm apologizing to you Snape. Because I really do mean it, and it's what Lily would have wanted," with that, Sirius left.

"And I think that's the first time in my life I've seen Black be serious," Snape was still shocked into standing where he was.

"But Severus my dear boy, he has always been Sirius," Dumbledore's eyes twinkled and Minerva looked startled.

"Not that again. I thought I had turned you into a chipmunk?" Minerva sighed.

"Yes, I know that the joke is getting old. And you forget Minerva, that I was a transfiguration master before you were born," Dumbledore laughed.

* * *

When Sirius got back, it was to a quiet house. He peeked into Al and Scor's room, and saw them both sleeping deeply, wrapped around each other so tight he was surprised either of them could breathe. At least the sheets covered their lower halves, because he didn't want to see that much of either of them. Ever.

He hastily shut the door, but quietly, so as not to wake them.

He then peeked into Rose's room, where she was slumped against the headboard with Harry curled up in her lap. He didn't_ want _to wake her, but he knew that her neck would kill when she woke up if he didn't adjust her position. So he walked in as silently as possible, and ever-so-carefully went to move her head before her hand grabbed his and held it.

"What are you doing?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I was just trying to move your head so that-" he whispered.

"Ow, my neck hurts," she mumbled.

"That exactly," Siriius resisted the temptation to roll his eyes.

"Help me with Harry will you, I need to get more comfortable." With some carefully manuvering Rose was lying down properly, she looked up at Sirius as he started to leave the room.

"And just where are you going?"

"My own room. I'm feeling a little on edge right now. I could use some rest," sirius tried to avoid the question.

"Translated: You are going to drink as much as possible, then pass out in your efforts to forget about everything that happened today. You're going to toss and turn, get up at three in the morning and pukke, before raiding the potions cabinet for a hangover cure," Rose explained in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I-Er- Uh- Do you have a better idea?"

Rose observed that he was rather adorable with his deer in the headlights look.

"Yes of course. Just stay in here with us," Rose's own eyes widened at her words.

_Did I seriously just say that._

"Are you sure?"

_Of course not!_

"Yes."

_Traitor!_

"Okay then. So I suppose I could just-"

Rose threw all her inhibitions away, and pulled back the corner of her blanket, patting the section of bed closest to her.

"Come here you silly man."

"Okay," Sirius took several deep breaths.

_She just doesn't want you to be alone. It's purely platonic, for Godric's sake Harry's on the other side of her!_

He slid in next to Rose, sitting up keeping a good three inch distance, but she pulled him in closer until she was lying her head on his chest. She waved her had lazily and her wand appeared. She swished it and mumbled something, and then next thing Sirius knew he was in a his white sleeveless undershirt and his boxers, with the rest of his clothes folded neatly in the arm chair in the corner of Rose's room.

"Uh- Rose?"

"You're easier to snuggle with without those stupid robes, now hold me properly and go to sleep!" she whisper-ordered.

Never one to refuse a pretty girl, especially not one that made him stammer like he was twelve, Sirius complied.

* * *

The next morning Harry woke up feeling warm and protected in Rose's arms, but as he woke he gradually discovered that they weren't alone. Uncle Sirius was in bed! With his mother! Harry frowned. He didn't like this- this business of his mother having a man in her bed. Sure, it was uncle Sirius, but he still didn't like it. He got out of the bed and walked around to the other side where Sirius was, then poked him in the back.

Repeatedly.

Sirius opened his eyes and slowly untangled himself from Rose. He got out of the bed, confused at first about why he was there. He then spotted Harry, with crossed arms and a scowl. Harry pulled Sirius along, let go briefly to shove Sirius' clothes in his arms before dragging him out of the room. Harry carefully closed the door to his mother's room, and dragged Sirius over to Scor and Al's room. Sirius, still waking up and confused, was startled when Harry made several sharp raps on the door. Al answered quickly, wearing black cotton pajama pants with paint on them and a bright green t-shirt with similar stains.

"I found _him _in my mother's bed," Harry sniffed. Al looked amused, and Harry could have sworn he heard Scor turn a laugh into a cough. "This is no laughing matter! He had his arms around her and everything! My mother! And he's been looking at her the way you look at Scor and I won't stand for it!" Harry huffed.

"Uh, maybe we should take this into the room instead of the hallway. And for goodness sake Sirius, put some clothes on!" Al ushered them into the room, and Sirius hastily put on his clothing.

"Now Harry, why don't you like Sirius looking at Rose that way?" Scor asked gently, kneeling next to the small boy.

"Cause I don't want mummy to get hurt! I know that he's been with lots of different women, and I don't want her to just be another notch in his bedpost!" Harry growled. The three men were taken aback.

"Harry, where did you hear that?" Al asked worriedly.

"Hermione. We were researching Sirius, and we found several accounts of women that he's dated. We've been doing a background check on him. We agreed that he's good to hang out with when it's fun, but he shouldn't be trusted around our mothers," Harry sniffed. The men were freaking out internally, as it was evident that Harry had actually done proper research on this.

"Harry, let me assure you that I only have the noblest intentions towards your mother. You all are my family now, and I wouldn't want to ruin that. If she ever decided that she wanted to be with me, _which is her decision_, she would be much more then 'a notch in my bedpost' as you put it. Where did you even hear that?" Sirius asked.

"Fine, I'll accept that. And I heard it because Al sings in the shower and I asked Hermione what it meant and she asked her aunt Helen. She's a muggle nurse, and she just had a baby, so she explained it to Hermione, and Hermione explained it to me, and-"

"Explained what exactly?" Scor asked in a strained voice.

"Sex," Harry replied nonchalantly.

"What?" Al was white as a sheet.

"Sex. It's when two people give each other a special hug, without wearing any clothes. It makes them feel extra happy, and sometimes they have a baby. But sometimes there are mean people who have sex and don't consider the other person's feelings. That's what a 'notch in your bedpost' means, because you usually have special hugs in a bed. Also, you shouldn't make someone give you a special hug, because that's illegal. Then she said that kids shouldn't have sex, only people who are old enough to understand the consequences of special hugs because you might have a baby or get sick because your partner is. She also said that people who have special hugs can make a lot of noise. But that's what silencing charms are for right?"

"Very astute Harry. I approve of that definition. Now why don't you go practice piano while I talk to your uncles?"

Harry beamed at Rose's praise, and quickly scampered out of the room.

"Now why was harry talking about sex?" she frowned at them.

"Well you see-" Sirius started.

"What happened was-" Al also tried to explain.

"He was trying to preserve your virtue," Scor cut in.

"What?" Rose was confused.

"He knows that Sirius has a crush on you and he wants to make sure that you don't get hurt," Scor shrugged."Ow what was that for?" he asked as Al elbowed him.

"Ixnay about the rushcay!"

"You know I can speak Pig Latin right?" Rose asked, amused.

"Right yeah, okay, why don't you and Sirius leave while I throughly whip my boyfriend?" Al shoved them out the door.

"Do you promise?" Scor asked suggestively.

Al facepalmed. "What am I going to do with you?" he groaned.

"Give me a special hug?"

**Authors Note 2:** Major brownie points and you get to ask any question about either of my stories (even if it's a spoiler) if you know what the song Al was singing in the shower! I also hid another little something in here, if you find it, two questions! I'll be adding more hints next chapter too, if no one gets it. :) Also, the concept of a 'special hug' is from another fanfic I read years ago, but I don't remember the title, much less what website it was. If anyone recognizes it, please tell me so that I can give that author his/her proper recognition. It was a Draco/Ginny fic I think, if that helps. And yeah, I know, Harry is a little young to be talking about sex, but I certainly knew at least the bare details when I was that young, and so did a lot of my friends, so... yeah. Like all authors, I really appreciate reviews!


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Harry Potter, Family, Romance